Qian2 (钱, “money”) does not exactly merit “Word-of-the-Day” status, being a high frequency character and level one HSK word, but it has been on my mind a lot recently with 6 visits to the bank in the past week in order to convert some RMB into other currencies.
If you don’t already know, Chinese people refer to their money as “the People’s Money,” i.e. 人民币 (ren2min2bi4, “People Money”), much like it is the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Liberation Army, and the People’s Park. The money is denominated in yuan (元, second tone, “dollars”), jiao (角, third tone, literally “horn” but meaning a tenth of a yuan), and fen (分, first tone, “fraction” and meaning one hundredth of a yuan). Paper currency comes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 yuan and all feature the Great Helmsman*. Exchange rates fluctuate, but a “Pink Mao” is generally worth about 15 bucks American. There are 1 yuan coins and an assortment of coins and tiny paper bills for 1 and 5 jiao, as well as fen, although fen are seldom used. Its cheaper for a supermarket to round down than to deal with things worth a fraction of a penny.
China’s neighbors to the east also use yuan, though in their language systems it gets rendered won and yen, respectively. Korean Won are simply called 韩元 (han2yuan2, “Korea Dollar”, e.g. 원) and Japanese Yen are simply called 日元 (ri4yuan2, “Japan Dollar”, e.g. 円) in Chinese. (Pro-tip: 円 is in your Chinese IME under “yuan.”) Though US dollars and Euros also get the yuan treatment, not all currencies are “yuan.”
So, as for why I went to the bank nearly every day for a week, Chinese has extremely onerous controls on foreign currency. Non-citizens are limited to converting the equivalent of USD 500 per day. The self-service “smart” terminals that some banks have introduced (i.e. ICBC) are basically limited to Chinese ID card holders, meaning one has to wait up to an hour to see a teller, after which it takes another 20 minutes to make several photocopies and pictures of your passport and have a manager sign off on the transaction. Oh, and they make you wait two days before releasing the cash.*
*The current design of renminbi was introduced in 1999, and though anti-counterfeiting measures have been added, the basic design is consistent. See Lethal Weapon 3, which revolves around counterfeiting Chinese yuan for a glimpse of the previous design.
**Actual conditions depend on the city and bank.